Lesson plan Kindergarten Art & Music
Drawing the Campion School Hallway Fountain and Its Wall Pipe
A kindergarten observational drawing lesson: children study the hallway drinking fountain up close, draw it big enough to fill the page, and add the pipes in the wall.
Objectives
- Students will draw a real object from observation, looking at it often while they draw.
- Students will draw the fountain large enough that it fills most of the page.
- Students will add and name the pipe that brings clean water to the fountain and the pipe that takes used water away.
Vocabulary
Key words: observe, outline, fountain, spout, pipe, drain
Teacher overview
Observational drawing means drawing something real while looking at it, rather than drawing from memory. This lesson uses the drinking fountain in the hallway of the fictional Campion School, an object the children use every day. Children sit in a half circle in front of it with clipboards, study its parts, and draw it large enough to fill the page. They then add the two pipes that the fountain depends on: one bringing clean water in from the wall, and one carrying used water away through the drain.
The lesson addresses a misconception that is common at this age. Many kindergartners believe the fountain holds its own supply of water in the metal box behind the spout, like a jug that someone fills, and some believe that water going down the little drain comes back up out of the spout. Neither is true. Clean water arrives through a pipe in the wall that connects to larger pipes under the street and, eventually, to the place where the town cleans its water. A school served by its own well is the exception, and there the pipe leads to the well and its treatment equipment instead. Used water goes down the drain into a separate pipe and leaves the building. The two colored pipes in the drawing, blue for clean water in and brown for used water out, make that difference visible, and the formative check in the procedure tests it directly.
On the art side, the habit to work against is drawing small. Kindergartners often draw a fountain the size of a thumbnail in the middle of a large sheet. The procedure asks for an air drawing first and gives a simple target for size: the fountain should nearly touch the top and bottom edges of the paper.
If the hallway cannot be used, the classroom sink works the same way. Open the cabinet door below the sink so the children can see the pipes, and have them draw the sink and both pipes.
Procedure
Hook (5 min): On the rug, ask one question and write every answer on chart paper without correcting any of them: "When you press the button on our hallway fountain, where does the water come from?" Tell the class they will look closely at the fountain today and come back to these answers at the end.
Looking closely (8 min): Walk to the fountain and seat the class in a half circle on the floor facing it, with clipboards on laps. Point to each part and have children say its name after you: the spout, where water comes out; the button; the bowl; and the drain, the small hole at the bottom. Then point to where the fountain meets the wall and to any pipe that shows underneath. Say: "A pipe in the wall brings clean water to the fountain. That pipe joins bigger pipes under the street. They go all the way to the place where our town cleans the water. The drain has its own pipe. It takes the used water away." Do not let children touch the pipes.
Air drawing (4 min): Ask everyone to hold up one finger and slowly trace the outline of the fountain in the air while looking at it, starting at the top of the spout and going all the way around. Do it twice. Then say the size rule: the fountain in your drawing should almost touch the top and the bottom of your paper.
Drawing the fountain (13 min): Children draw the outline in black crayon or marker, looking up at the fountain after every few lines. Model the first few lines on chart paper, pausing to look up each time so children can see the looking habit. Walk behind the half circle and remind individual children to look up. When the outline is done, children add the spout, the button, and the drain inside it.
Adding the pipes and checking understanding (5 min): Children draw a blue pipe going from the back of the fountain into the wall and a brown pipe going down from the drain. Then run the formative check. Ask everyone to put a finger on the pipe that brings clean water, and look around the circle; then ask for a finger on the pipe that takes used water away. If more than three children point to the brown drain pipe for clean water, return to the fountain, trace both paths with your finger, and repeat the check before moving on.
Labels and closing (5 min): Back in the classroom, scribe the words spout, pipe, and drain onto each drawing where the child points, and add one dictated sentence, such as "Water comes to the fountain in a pipe." Return to the chart paper from the hook, read the first answers aloud, and ask the three closing questions on the Student Handout. Finish by asking the class which of the first answers they would now change.
Student Handout
No printed page is needed. Write these three closing questions on chart paper and read them aloud at the end of the lesson while children hold up their drawings.
- Where does the water in our fountain come from?
- Where does the water go after it goes down the drain?
- Why did we draw the fountain so big?
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: From a pipe in the wall.
This is the hook question asked again. Accept "a pipe," "the blue pipe," or "the pipes under the street." A child who says "from inside the fountain" or "from the drain" has not yet let go of the misconception and should trace the blue pipe on the drawing with a finger. - Answer: Down the drain into a different pipe, and out of the building.
Accept "down the brown pipe" or "away." The key idea is that the drain water does not come back up the spout. - Answer: So we can see all the parts.
Accept "so it fills the page" or "so people can see the spout and the pipes." This checks the art objective about size.
Differentiation
Support
Give children who find drawing from observation difficult a sheet with two dots marking where the top and bottom of the fountain should reach, so the size decision is made for them. Let them draw the outline with a thick marker, which is easier to control than a crayon, and seat them closest to the fountain so they can see its edges clearly.
Extension
Ask the child to draw the fountain a second time from the side, where the pipe into the wall is easier to see, and to compare the two views. Children ready for more can add a dotted line on the drawing showing where the clean-water pipe goes after it disappears into the wall, and dictate where they think it ends up.
ELL supports
Name each part while touching it, and have children repeat the word while pointing to the same part on the real fountain: spout, button, bowl, drain, and pipe. Keep the words written on cards taped beside the fountain during the drawing time. Children can show their understanding in the formative check by pointing alone, and dictated sentences can be given in the home language and restated in English as you scribe.
Extensions
Post the drawings in the hallway beside the fountain with a title the class chooses together. On a later day, take the class to look at an outdoor faucet or a hose bib on the school building and find the pipe that feeds it, then add a small drawing of it to the back of the page.